I agree totally. I've taken that into consideration. I might do it, but then again, it's over 10 years old and has some design shortcomings and I don't know if I want to go in that direction.

I'm seriously thinking of playing the middle ground, buying a crank-forward bike that my wife can ride, so that she would be more likely to ride with me from time to time. I rode a Raleigh Gruv yesterday that is a unisex design, very simple straightforward bike with no suspension but a very padded seat and with easy to operation 7-speed gearing. It was very nice. I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to cruise around and to climb small hills. Just $280.

By contrast, I changed out two tires on my minivan and that cost me $325.